Gameplay
The game features many gameplay improvements over previous games in the series, the most notable being the addition of Spirit Gauge, a gauge which allows for characters to cancel certain attacks to perform more powerful ones. These occur depending on the level of the gauge. It can also be combined with Musou attacks to perform an "Ultimate Musou". Certain combination of attacks from the Xtreme Legends expansions also make a comeback. Each of the character's weapons are categorized under Normal, Speed, and Power types similar to Dynasty Warriors 6, except that each character still has unique weapons assigned to them.
The option to create edit characters from the original game returns and is required to access the new "Historical Mode", which can be used to create an original story for edit characters by reenacting parts of historical battles. Story Mode and Free Mode returns, as does the shop system, which has been redesigned and is now part of "Dojo", a section also dedicated to creating edit characters and color-edit existing characters. An exclusive mode for the Wii version is the "Murasame Castle" based on the Nintendo game Nazo no Murasame Jō, which allows the control of its lead character Takamaru.
Read more about this topic: Samurai Warriors 3